


Tear In My Heart

by Buggy-sempai (chikasempai)



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: F/M, Identity Reveal
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-29
Updated: 2019-09-09
Packaged: 2020-09-29 13:26:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 3,919
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20436773
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/chikasempai/pseuds/Buggy-sempai
Summary: Marinette is sick, even Chat is worried about her.Meanwhile at school, Adrien is working on a project that could change everything.





	1. I'm Alive

**Author's Note:**

> I thought this up listening to Tear In My Heart by Twenty One Pilots.

Alya had glandular fever, but she was feeling fine other than a sore throat, so when Marinette stole a sip of her drink, she didn’t think anything about it until it was too late. Too late being a month later when Marinette started feeling super lethargic. Marinette came down hard after that, barely able to stay awake for an hour at a time.

It was affecting her life as Ladybug. Tikki was waking her for akuma alerts, but even Chat realised something was wrong. And she felt he was starting to doubt her “bad cold” excuses.

After a late villain, Marinette dropped onto her terrace just in time for her powers to fade out. She felt so weak she decided to rest in her deck chair and instantly dropped to a gentle sleep. Tikki sighed and covered her charge with a blanket, hoping to protect the child from the chill of night.

A tap on the roof caused Tikki to scatter, hiding amongst the flowers she watched Chat Noir drop onto the terrace. Gently the hero lifted his friend into his arms, carrying her inside.

-

He shouldn’t have checked in on her in costume, he knew Ladybug wouldn’t approve. But he couldn’t visit in his civilian identity, he was too embarrassed. Finding her asleep outside was a surprise. Snuggled under her thin blue blanket she looked so peaceful.

But she couldn’t stay there, black clouds were rolling in, much more threatening than the earlier akuma. He didn’t want to disturb her, so he put his strength to use, cradling her as he used his baton to gently lower them down onto her bed. He moved the blankets aside with one arm as he laid her down. As she shivered with fever, he couldn’t stop himself stealing a moment to snuggle with her.

Once she was settled, she buried her face in her pillows. Her hair was a mess, pigtails loose and matted. On her bedside table lay a hairbrush and some hair ties.

Adrien softly brushed out her tangles, taking great care not to pull her hair and wake her. Nimbly he worked on tying her hair in two braids. His claws made quick work of the job, managing perfectly neat parts wherever they fell. When her hair was set, he climbed down from her bed to look for a pen and paper so she wouldn’t freak out at being moved in her sleep. He gave her a kiss on the head as he left his gift next to her pillows, inhaling deeply his heart swelled with the smell of her, cinnamon and bread amplified by the scent of the fever.

“Come back to school soon, Mari. I miss you.”

-

“Tikki? Did you do my hair? I had pigtails in before the attack last night.”

The kwami flitted around, trying to find the words to tell her friend what had happened. Her eyes locked on the stark black against the soft pink of Marinette bed, “what’s that, Mari?”

Marinette rubbed sleep from her eyes and looked at the note on the little doll. Slowly a flush creeped across her face.

“I transformed first, right? I was me, not us when he was here, right?” Marinette pleaded with her kwami, “Does he know?”

“He doesn’t know, he found you asleep on the terrace and made sure you were safe, that’s all.”

Marinette nodded, relieved her secret was safe, “So… he did my hair? While I slept? He’s a soft little kitty, full of surprises.”

She almost wished she could remember his fingers in her hair as she read the neat scrawl.

> _“Princess, _  
I saw you fell asleep watching the sunset, and thought it best to return you to your room, safe from the impending rain.  
Get well soon,  
Chat.”

-

“No way, _girl_! Chat Noir found you asleep outside, put you to bed, and fixed your hair?” Alya squealed, causing Marinette’s head to throb painfully.

Before Marinette could move Alya jumped up, snatching the cuddly toy and note. With her phone she snapped a picture of the note and Marinette’s hair, quickly sending a message to their friends.

Adrien sent his reply straight to Marinette.

> “_Do I have some competition for your heart? ;p_”

Alya stole the phone from her tired friend and composed a sassy reply before the sick one could sputter herself back to life.

> “_There’s enough of me to go around ;P_”

“ALYA!” Marinette fumed, “How could you send him that? He’s gonna think I’m a huge flirt!”

> “_That was bold, is Chat there now answering your texts? =^.^=_”

Alya showed Marinette the reply, “See, girl? He knows it wasn’t you. I can be your inner voice and send him all the things you want to say. Let’s see…”

> “_Depends, do you want to join us?_”

Marinette snatched her phone, accidentally hitting send in the process.

> “_OH MY GOSH I’M SO SORRY, ALYA HAD MY PHONE!_”
> 
> “_I figured. I hope you’re feeling better._”
> 
> “_I’m getting there, thank you._”

Marinette glared at her best friend. Quickly her anger turned to laughter, then to exhaustion as she felt her pain meds ebbing away and her headache returning. Alya flashed her a grin and tucked Marinette up on the chaise, a nest of blankets and love, before sneaking back to school before the end of lunch rang.


	2. I'm on Fire

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> There's something sneaky going on at school, Ladybug is really sick and Chat visits his princess again.

Marinette had heard about the project from Alya, they were supposed to be working in teams of four. But with Marinette down and out, there wasn’t much their team could do other than work without her. It was supposed to be a video project, to do with feelings and declarations. Without her, Alya, Nino and Adrien agreed on a love declaration, but they couldn’t pick a song, so they enlisted Marinette for the least strenuous job. She listened to music all day, even when asleep, so it didn’t take her long to pick something a little unorthodox. Nino didn’t approve of her indie choice, but he accepted it. When next asked about the project, Alya clammed up. She didn’t want to give it away to Marinette, she knew her best friend’s feelings on the matter.

Marinette was too tired to push it.

-

Ladybug noticed them more often. Nino and Alya, they seemed to always be at Akuma attacks, phones out trained on her and Chat Noir the whole time, even if the akuma was causing major destruction in the other direction. It was weird.

It was also distracting; she was so busy making sure they were clear of danger that she didn’t notice she was tiring until she was hit with a wave of exhaustion. Her yo-yo slipped from her grasp and she dropped into Chat’s waiting arms. He paused to grab the dropped weapon, then leapt away cradling her in his arms. He held her close, not wanting her to be jostled as he leapt from rooftop to rooftop.

Stopping to check on her, he realized she had been rocked to sleep by his movements. Since Alya was at the akuma site he dropped her in Alya’s room, carefully he locked the door and closed the curtains. He couldn't have Alya's sisters sneaking a peak. Gently he brushed her hair from her face, placing a gentle kiss on her forehead as her earrings beeped their last warning.

“I need to go protect our city. I won’t look, join me when you can.”

As he jumped from the window, Chat tried to ignore that she smelled of cinnamon, bread and heat.

-

Alya was ecstatic when they got to school the next day, she had gotten the sweetest footage of Chat stealing away with Ladybug in his arms. She had even managed to get a clear shot of the adoring and worried look he shot at her as he leapt across a gap in buildings. It was totally worth Chat having to save her from the tree 20 minutes later, plus she got a selfie with him!

Adrien seemed pretty impressed by her tale too, which was a nice balance to Nino huffing at her that she could have been hurt. And, of course she couldn’t tell Marinette, the girl would die of panic if she knew Alya had climbed that high for a scoop.

-

Chat visited her again, but this time she was awake. She was on the mend, it was slow and tedious, but now she could focus on some schoolwork between naps and her fever wasn’t getting as high when it spiked.

When he knocked, she dropped her physics book on her foot with a curse.

“Such a foul mouth, princess!” The boy in black laughed as he slipped in her window, “I hear you’re recovering.”

Marinette tugged at her sweatpants in frustration, “I’m restless. I have enough energy to want to do things, but not enough to get to do them. I’ve been sick too long. I just want to go back to school and see my friends.”

Chat watched her carefully, her anger had the same tone she used with Chloe. It was the same tone Ladybug used on Vulpina too. He shook that thought away, he didn’t have proof, he couldn’t ask.

“Need some help? Or just company?” He took her sewing chair and rolled it closer to her desk.

“Company would be nice. I’m going stir-crazy with just Alya for company,” Marinette sighed, brushing her loose hair aside, “I love her, but I miss everyone else. Nino, Rose, Juleka… Adrien… Heck, I even miss Chloe!”

Another knock drew their panicked gaze to the trapdoor downstairs. Sabine pushed the door open placing a tray of snacks and drinks on the floor as she pulled herself into the room, “I thought I heard another voice, hello Chat Noir, thank you for taking care of Marinette the other night.”

She ruffled the boy’s hair as she placed the snacks down on the table, “Don’t stay too late, even heroes need sleep.”

Marinette sighed as her mother kissed her head and left. That was not how she expected her parents to react upon finding a boy in her room. Let alone _this_ boy. Chat broke the silence with a laugh, handing Marinette the paracetamol tablets that were on the tray and a drink.

“She liked what you did with my hair,” Marinette smiled weakly, taking the pain medicine, “Lots of people did, Alya almost posted it to the Ladyblog, until I reminded her that would put me in danger.”

“I’m sorry, it was so messy, I didn’t want you having to cut any tangles out the next day. Your hair is too lovely for a pixie cut,” Chat reached out and stroked a loose strand.

She closed her eyes gently, letting him run his fingers through her hair. Those claws were great for combing through knots and he was surprisingly gentle. Chat had the ability to destroy and yet somehow, he was the most tender person she knew of. Marinette vaguely gestured to a drawer at the bottom of her desk, “There’s hair stuff in there if you want to make me pretty again.”

They sat in calm, comfortable silence as Chat played with her hair, putting it up and down multiple times. Marinette found it relaxing as she caught up on assignments. At some point his hands had left her hair and started scratching her back.

Eventually the fog started creeping over her again, and she let out a yawn. It was getting late. Marinette turned to Chat to see he was also starting to doze in his seat.

“Oh, you sil-” She cut herself off before the nickname gave her away, “sleepy cat! I kept you here too long. Go get some rest.”

As Chat rose and stretched, a devilish idea came into his mind, “Pass me your phone!”

-

Alya burst into her room screaming at 8am.

“HE WAS HERE AGAIN?”

Marinette looked up from her reading, “Oh, you finally decided to look at the message?”

“You sent it to me at 6am, I wasn’t up yet!”

“You didn’t look at the time I took the picture though.” Marinette pointed to her clock in the background.

“Three? He was here at three in the morning? Chat Noir was in your room braiding your hair at 3am? GIRL!” Alya couldn’t contain her excitement, “Does mama Sabine know?”

Marinette giggled. Her mother had snuck back up the ladder and taken a few candids of Chat playing with Marinette’s hair. She had Alya sign a promise not to put them on the Ladyblog before she sent the journalist copies.

Alya picked her favourite picture and sent it to Adrien.

> “_You have a LOT of competition, M. Agreste._”

In the image Marinette was leaned back into his chest, eyes closed and a soft smile playing on her mouth. Chat’s face was a wide beaming smile as he held several strands of her hair above her head. He knew the moment, he’d just made a pun about her being a marionette doll, a second later she had opened her eyes and rolled them at him.

Adrien’s heart fluttered at the image.

> “_:O Thanks for the warning. :P_”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys, thanks for the love on the first chapter.
> 
> This is the first actual fic I've written in like a decade, so I'm super glad people seem to like it so far. I do have the whole thing finished already, I'm just making final edits and I should be posting a chapter every couple days. <3


	3. Take Me Higher

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Marinette and Ladybug both seem to be recovering from their illnesses.

Another akuma attack, thankfully easy. But he can see how she’s picking up, she doesn’t need to rest mid-battle, she has longer after using her abilities before she changes back, no more rushing away before the butterfly is out of sight.

Seated on a beam, he put an arm around her shoulders, “Finally getting over that cold, I see.”

She laughed, bright and bubbly for the first time in weeks, “Yeah, it was a bastard, I’ll give it that. Thanks for picking up the slack. And for not looking when you left me at Alya’s.”

Her smirked at her, “It would have been cheating. You said we should keep it secret. And if I do find out by accident one day, I’m going to have fun playing games to get you to notice me.”

“I fear your plans, silly kitty.”

Chat gave her a squeeze. Trying to ignore the scent of bread and cinnamon as she leaned against him, surveying everything from their perch on the Eiffel tower.

“You have nothing to fear from me, m’lady.”

-

Marinette made it to school. She was late, and went home at lunch, but she made it to school and that felt so amazing she could have danced. Until she remembered that Alya made Adrien and Nino carry her home. Adrien had been holding her upright the whole walk with a concerned look.

She didn’t believe Alya’s comments that Adrien had been smelling her hair. That’s just absurd. Pure nonsense. No way.

But what if her hair smelled bad? She flew into a panic and Alya laughed at her. Planting a kiss on her head, Alya took a deep breath and sighed, “You smell normal, like bread and cinnamon from the bakery.”

Marinette calmed, “He must have been preoccupied with the project.”

“Or he was worried about you? You really didn’t look well,” Alya hugged her friend and winked, “I’ll ask him when I get back to school.”

-

Adrien had no idea what he was doing with this song. Why did she pick such a hard one? Alya and Nino had captured some spectacular footage. He just didn’t know how to make it obvious he knew she was Ladybug without alerting the entire school.

_Urgh, no, the goal is to let her know who I am._

Adrien pieced the videos together carefully. It was done… kind of. It was missing something. Something that should be easy to obtain.

-

She really was agitated. He was just wandering around when he found her madly dashing across the rooftops. Carefully he calculated her path as he extended his baton. He dropped in front of her with just enough room for her to skid to a halt.

“KITTY!” She leapt as she tried to pull up without crashing into the black form.

“M’lady is looking well. Care for some company?”

“Only if you can catch me,” With a smirk the bug spun and took off the way she had come.

It took all his effort to keep up on foot, for having been so sick she was recovering as quickly as she’d been brought down. When she finally started to slow, she took a seat and watched their city glow in the twilight.

Her face was flushed with the heat of their run and aglow in the lights of Paris. He needed to capture this moment forever. He pulled out his baton, flicked it open and took a photo of Ladybug from a distance.

He closed the distance between them, dropping beside her to take a selfie as he kissed her cheek. The next 8 photos were a blur of limbs as she fought off his affections, amused. Finally, they settled in to taking pictures, full of bunny ears and silly faces.

It was nice to just be kids, even if they were heroes high above the streets. Laughter rang across the city, bright and cheerful, reassuring all who heard it.


	4. Than I've Ever Been

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Marinette is back at school and it's finally time to present that media project.

Marinette made it to her seat, no problems. No falls, no rushing, running a touch early, sliding into her spot beside Alya feeling warm and content.

“What do you mean you won’t show us?” Nino sounded offended.

“I’d just rather everyone see it on the projector, a phone screen doesn’t do it justice,” Adrien assured Nino, “Mari, you understand where I’m coming from, right?”

“Uh, yeah. Totally. Wait, what are you talking about?” Marinette blinked in confusion.

Alya smirked at her best friend, “The media project? You know, the one we got you to pick a song for?”

“Oh right. Yeah, I think I’d rather see that on the big screen if Adrien worked really hard on it.”

“Girl, you’re such a party pooper!” Alya pouted.

-

The video started with them fighting, twirling and dancing around each other, throwing yo-yos and punches at beasts and villains and friends. As it goes along, she notices the clips are largely focusing on physical contact between the two heroes. Hands held for support or to pull each other along, rough grasps for transport, a wonderful clip of her lifting him over her head and yeeting him at a villain.

> “_The songs on the radio are okay,  
But my taste in music is your face._”

Marinette balked from the photo of her kissing Chat Noir on Valentine’s Day. She covered her flinch with a cough as Adrien glanced back at her.

The images got softer, a protective hug, them tied together face to face, him leaping into her arms in fear, holding hands on the train, her grasping his arm in front of Glaciator.

> “_You fell asleep in my car, I drove the whole time,  
But that’s okay, I’ll just avoid the holes, so you sleep fine._”

Alya’s footage of him cradling her, asleep, running across the rooftops, slowed down. Marinette gasps at the look he gives her, as if she’ll break if he holds too tight.

> “_Sometimes you gotta bleed to know, oh, oh,  
That you’re alive and have a soul, oh, oh._”

Her comforting him after an injury, him taking hits for her, him grasping her as they go flying into the sky on her yo-yo.

> “_My heart is my armor,  
She’s the tear in my heart._”

His adoring glances and soft smiles at her, some of their selfies on the roof (the cheek kiss brought a squeal of delight from Alya), a soft picture of her half lit by the twinkling lights of her city. The fading shot a silhouette of her leaning on his shoulder from behind, as they watch the sun set from the tower girder.

She gone pink, so very very pink. _How did he get those selfies?_

Marinette refused to take her eyes off the screen, afraid of the blonde hair in front of her, somehow knowing he’s looking at her with those green eyes and that stupid smile. _Oh, he must feel so smug, that stupid cat_.

Their teacher thanked their group for their work, Nino and Alya gushed at Adrien saying how beautifully he’d put it all together. The bell rang before either could notice Marinette’s silence. Nino and Alya were so busy fanning over the video they didn’t notice Adrien and Marinette didn’t move from their seats, even after they were alone in the classroom.

“Mari? You good?” Adrien didn’t stand up, waiting for her to look at him rather than stepping into her gaze.

“I- I should have been more afraid.”

“Oh, so I should have gone with the breaking into your room for midnight cuddles route?” Adrien laughed as Marinette turned very, very red.

“How-” She paused, unable to get the words out.

“You smell like a bakery. It wasn’t too hard to put it together once got close enough to you.”

“You visited me when I was sick,” Marinette finally met his eyes, “You carried me to bed! You played with my hair for hours and helped me catch up!”

“I didn’t know it was you then, but it certainly helped me figure it out,” Adrien lowered his head, “I would play with your hair forever if you let me.”

He hadn’t noticed her rise, until she leaned down to kiss his cheek, “I might take you up on that, mon chaton.”

-

Adrien knocked on her door early in the morning before school. Her mother sent him upstairs with a tray full of breakfast foods and a soft “Call me Sabine, dear.”

She hadn’t expected him, but she understood as he took the hairbrush from her hand. He had been serious; he would run his hands through her hair all day if she let him. He eventually settled on two small braids that formed a heart, tied together at the back of her head. This kept her hair away from her face but left the rest of her hair loose for him to play with at school.

No one could figure out how the LadyNoir video had resulted in him and Marinette holding hands and blushing when they walked into school together that morning. No one could understand why Adrien had set all his screen backgrounds to Chat Noir playing with Marinette’s hair, magic of the costumes somehow preventing people from seeing what was right in front of them. No one else needed to know, they knew, and that was all that mattered.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There's an epilogue coming. I could have ended it here, but there's a small detail I want to address.


	5. Epilogue

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> They're not the only ones who know.

They weren’t the only ones who knew, they should have figured. They had been sitting in her room listening to music at midnight on a Friday, when her mother walked in with a tray full of snacks and drinks.

“Good evening, Adrien. How was school?” Sabine positively shone with love.

Chat Noir froze, his claws tangled in Marinette’s locks.

Marinette gaped at her mother, “How long have you known?”

“About you being Ladybug? I’ve had my suspicions, but the first time I brought you both snacks confirmed it. About Adrien being Chat Noir? Since he did your hair before school.” Sabine shrugged like it was simple, “It’s not like you’re exactly hiding it.”

Adrien dropped his transformation with a laugh, relaxing behind Marinette in sweats and a tshirt.

Sabine ruffled his hair softly, “I’ll send Tom in when he wakes up, to send you home, Adrien. Don’t want your family to notice you missing.”

Disappearing down the hatch for a moment, she brought her head back through the door for a final word of warning, “Don’t forget to wear pyjamas, please.”

The teens couldn’t look at each other directly for a while after that.


End file.
